Web Services are part of the development in Microsoft's .Net framework for client-server communications. The .Net specification provides for two methods of accessing Web Services, SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and .Net Remoting.
A Web Service is a unit of application logic providing data and services to other applications. Applications access Web Services via ubiquitous Web protocols and data formats such as HTTP, XML, and SOAP. The .Net platform from Microsoft represents one system of providing Web Services.
SOAP is an RPC mechanism that uses XML, usually over HTTP, to allow a client to access a server. SOAP is beneficial as it is an open-standard XML format allowing communication between different platforms. There exist several implementations of SOAP technologies for these platforms, as well as Java.
However, SOAP has limitations. The most significant is that the XML format is often not as fast or efficient as a high-speed binary format.
Also, SOAP lacks support for certain features. Notably, SOAP does not support activation of lifetime control of remote objects by the client (like DCOM for Windows). There is also no support for passing objects by reference and no support for callbacks or events.
SOAP also lacks some of the features provided by .Net. One is the lack of support for additional context information which is specific to .Net. It is intended that such information will be used in the future to enable features such as distributed transactions and additional security levels.
.Net Remoting is an alternative to SOAP, .Net Remoting is a distributed object protocol that uses binary or SOAP-based format over TCP or HTTP to allow a client to access a server. .Net Remoting addresses the limitations of SOAP by supporting additional features, but at the same time introduces limitations of its own.
The primary limitation of .Net Remoting is that it is specific to the .Net Framework and will only work with other .Net Frameworks. This presents a particular problem for developers and organizations that use Java and wish to combine the .Net Framework with Java.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method of bridging between Java and the .Net Framework. This method of bridging allows Java clients to use the .Net Remoting protocol to interact with a Web Service running in the .Net Framework. This method also allows .Net Framework clients to communicate with Java-based applications using the .Net Remoting protocol.